Denon AVR-X2300W AV receiver: high five on all fronts

Denon's AVR-X2200W AV receiver deservedly won What Hi-Fi's 2015 award for best home cinema amp. The receiver was loaded with features, easy to use and impressed with its performance. Its replacement - the new AVR-X2300W - has big shoes to fill. In fact, the shoes to fill are like clown shoes!

Somehow, Denon has succeeded. The extremely generous feature count has been extended. The most valuable new option is Wi-Fi streaming at 5GHz. The 5GHz frequency offers less interference than 2.4GHz as the latter is also used by cordless phones, microwave ovens, etc..

On the specification front, there's nothing else this receiver needs. It has eight HDMI inputs and two HDMI outputs and all ten are compatible with 4K Ultra HD. The AVR-X2300W also upscales non-4K content.

3D content is supported, as are Dolby Atmos soundtracks, which, as well as including the conventional AV channels such as centre, left, right and surround, have ceiling channels to convey overhead sounds such as helicopters or thunder. The new surround-sound format developed by DTS - DTS:X - will be supported by a future firmware upgrade.

As mentioned, streaming is possible and the X2300W is capable of streaming over Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, AirPlay, Ethernet and USB.

But the huge feature count has not stopped Denon looking at other ways to improve on the AVR-X2200W. Internal components have been uprated and circuitry revised in order to improve the quality of the sound. Immersive home cinema, solid stereo reproduction, complete streaming options and a bargain (sub-£500) price tag make the Denon AVR-X2300W an essential purchase. Hear it at Hi-Fi Stereo.